Abstract: A method and telephone apparatus that detects an incoming telephone call and determines if the telephone number of the call's originator has previously been stored in the memory of the telephone is provided. If the originator's telephone number has not been previously stored, it is stored into the memory of the telephone. In addition, if an alphanumeric identifier associated with the originator's telephone number was received with the originator's telephone number, it is also stored into memory. If the alphanumeric identifier was not received, the telephone automatically initiates a call to a remote computer and transmits the telephone number of the originator to the remote computer. The computer assigns an alphanumeric identifier to the telephone number and transmits the alphanumeric identifier back to the telephone which stores the alphanumeric identifier in the telephone memory in association with the telephone number.